Chapter 17 - The Farm in Irttat
Lily’s Tavern stood in the center of town, not far from the Residents’ Activity Center. It was where townspeople came to unwind after a day’s work. Lily’s fried fish and barley beer were especially well known.
Since Lucita had spent the entire month of January in near destitution, she had never set foot inside before.
It was a lazy afternoon. Warm sunlight rested gently on her skin, pleasantly mild.
Inside, the tavern buzzed with voices. She immediately recognized Javena and Durani. They were making quite a racket. From the sound of it, they were playing cards.
She had never been here before and didn’t know where the counter was. After taking a few tentative steps through the doorway, her footsteps grew somewhat hesitant.
The owner, Lily, noticed the blind cane in her hand and came over warmly: "Hello, is this Lucita?"
Before she could answer, Javena and Durani, who were playing cards, noticed Lily's words and turned to call out: "Little Lucy, want to join our table?"
Lucita only wanted to eat right now and politely declined: “No, thank you. I’m ok. Enjoy your game.”
Then she said to Lily: "I've been in town for a month without visiting. How rude of me."
"Not at all!" Lily was indeed a businesswoman and laughed heartily, asking: "Are your eyes giving you trouble? Let me help you find a seat."
Lucita thanked her, and Lily led her to a window seat.
There was a wooden carved menu at the counter, but Lucita couldn't see it, so Lily brought it over and read it out item by item: "The main dishes in the shop are fried tuna for six silver coins, roasted potatoes for four silver coins, fried bread for three silver coins... There are also some snacks and soups. Fish and chips for five silver coins, endive salad for four silver coins, asparagus salad for four silver coins, a bowl of tomato bisque for five silver coins, a glass of barley beer for five silver coins..."
She rattled off a long string without any pause.
Lucita: Is this what a successful merchant is like?
Fried bread was the cheapest, but Lucita now deeply detested bread as a food. Her stomach urgently needed some flavor, with the spare money in hand, she extravagantly ordered a plate of fried tuna, a bowl of endive salad, and a bowl of hot tomato bisque.
The fried tuna was sliced and arranged on a ceramic plate with some lemon juice drizzled on the surface to remove the fishy smell. The fish body was quite thick. The cross-section was white on the outside and red inside, with a tender, smooth, and fresh taste.
According to Lily, pan-fried tuna, tomato soup, and barley beer were her signature dishes, and they indeed didn't disappoint.
The endive salad was standard, crisp and refreshing, with a lighter cheese sauce flavor than Javena's.
The steaming hot tomato bisque was truly comforting, especially after eating bread for half a month. The abundant tomatoes had been cooked into a sandy texture. The unmelted tomato chunks inside had probably been mashed, making it especially thick. It also gave off a faint milky fragrance, probably from added cream and cheese.
Lucita had originally thought five silver coins for a bowl of vegetable soup was overpriced, but after one sip she immediately felt it was worth it. Her internal organs, frozen by bread, were all warmed up.
This meal cost fifteen silver coins. Add a bit more money and she could buy a small sheep.
Lucita regretfully dismissed the idea of coming here often to eat.
Taking advantage of the tavern being uncrowded, she sat in the wooden chair by the window and sunbathed for a while. The afternoon sunlight wasn't intense. After being well-fed and satisfied, enjoying a sunbath for a while, could there be anything more pleasant than this?
At this moment, her ears suddenly caught a name.
Lily greeted enthusiastically: "Hey! Palmer, long time no see!"
Palmer?
She'd been keeping this person in mind.
Sophia's words were still in her ears: "These experimental instruments aren't made in town. They're brought from outside by Palmer, a traveling merchant who comes once a season. They should be things produced by humans."
She wanted to learn to prepare magic potions herself and really needed a set of experimental equipment, and the traveling merchant Palmer was currently her only source.
This was the first day of February. Palmer had finally arrived in Irttat.
Palmer seemed to have come on horseback.
She tethered her carriage at the door. Her voice sounded quite heavy: "Hello, Lily."
Lily's tavern was a three-story wooden house. The first floor was the tavern, while the second and third floors were both an inn, specifically providing lodging for out-of-town guests visiting Irttat. At this moment, she asked smoothly: "Still staying seven days?"
"Yes."
Then came the clattering sound of coins being poured onto a table.
Palmer grumbled: "Things in Irttat are really as expensive as ever."
Lily didn't mind: "Thank you for your generous patronage, Palmer."
On the topic of expensive prices, Lucita really resonated too much with Palmer.
But Palmer might not necessarily have common ground with her.
She specifically bought some small items unavailable in Irttat from outside at low prices of a few copper coins (which weren't actually low prices outside), and selling them in Irttat could yield massive income counted in silver coins. On the other hand, one gold coin—that is, ten silver coins—could buy a pound of precious spices in Irttat, and outside, these spices were luxury goods costing one pound of gold per pound. When Palmer sold them to outside nobles, her income could multiply several times over.
How could this be something a poor soul like Lucita could understand?
After Palmer's lodging procedures were completed, Lucita stood up to strike up conversation: "Hello, Palmer. I heard you sell laboratory tools here. Is that right?"
Palmer said somewhat puzzled: "Friend, I can get them for you, but this kind of order needs to be pre-ordered. Over these years, only Garcia has ordered a set. Other friends haven't had similar needs, so I wouldn't proactively purchase them to bring over for sale. As far as I know, Garcia's potion supply is very sufficient. Did she stop?"
"No, it's just that I want to learn to make potions myself." Lucita explained and asked about the price: "May I ask, for a precise small balance and those tools like test tubes and flasks, how many silver coins would a complete set cost?"
"These tools are very expensive even outside, only nobles can own them. A complete set would cost you about fifty gold coins, or around five hundred silver coins. The specific price needs to be determined after I confirm the detailed list with your requirements."
Lucita calculated quickly.
If it was now until summer, peas could be harvested twice, and radishes could also be harvested.
She already knew about Irttat's amazing plant yields. Her original estimate for pea harvest was fifty or sixty pounds per harvest. Doubling that meant over a hundred pounds. At a purchase price of one silver coin per pound, two harvests could yield over two hundred silver coins total.
Radishes couldn't compare to peas in weight, and the price was also much cheaper, six copper coins per pound. But radish yields were correspondingly very high. Her eight-meter vegetable plot could harvest about a thousand pounds. If the purchase price was half, she could get three hundred silver coins total.
The income from both plots added up to over five hundred silver coins. If she didn't buy experimental equipment, she could live a prosperous entire summer with surplus.
Almost every townsperson's life was like this, sufficiently leisurely and affluent.
But now if she wanted to buy experimental equipment, she would need to spend another relatively hard summer.
Having made up her mind, Lucita decisively asked: "When is your next visit?"
"Hard to say. Normally I'll come once shortly after summer begins."
"Then, when you come next time, could you bring a set for me?"
"Of course." Palmer readily pulled out a notebook and pen from her backpack, sat across from her, and recorded: "Now we can verify what you need. I'll record it and bring everything for you next time."
Lucita had done her homework: "First I need a silver precision balance. Then two test tube racks, two five-hundred-milliliter flasks..."
Palmer quickly recorded in her notebook. After finishing, she calculated for a while and gave an answer: "Friend, that's five hundred and thirteen silver coins total. A deposit of one-tenth is required. I'll round down and collect fifty coins first. Is that acceptable?"
Lucita had come out to eat today and didn't have that much money on her: "Will you be staying at this tavern for seven days? I don't have enough money on me. Could I bring it to you this afternoon?"
"Of course, any time during these seven days is fine." Palmer answered readily: "If it's today, I just arrived in town and am not in a hurry to sell goods in the square. I'll be resting here all afternoon. You can come over anytime."
Lucita didn't like to procrastinate and planned to immediately return home to bring the money over.
She stood up, then suddenly felt another wave of dizziness and fell back into the chair.
Palmer asked with some helplessness: "What's wrong, friend?"
Lily also seemed to notice the commotion here and quickly put down the wine bottle she was wiping and hurried over: "What happened?"
Lucita had gotten used to these occasional dizzy spells. Originally she had worried about her own health, but after talking with Violet, she understood this was a manifestation of the rejection reaction from soul and body incompatibility. Now even that worry was gone.
She reassured them: "It's nothing. My body is just too weak."
She rubbed her forehead and opened her eyes.
Palmer was a middle-aged woman around forty years old, obese in build, with messy red hair and an obvious double chin.
Probably due to long-distance travel, she looked travel-worn and somewhat weary in expression.
The owner Lily also had red hair, tied with a green ribbon. Her eyes were a clean azure blue, her mouth a bit large. When she smiled, one could see a row of snow-white teeth.
She wore a clean white large-pocket apron and still held a towel in her hand.
The tavern had two rows of wooden tables and chairs. Some dining tables still had leftover food and cold dishes left by customers that hadn't been cleared yet.
Through the door was a large counter. The shelves behind the counter were filled with barley beer, wine, and some bottled fruit juices. On the counter sat a beautiful wooden standing menu with elegant and beautiful fonts, also decorated with some green vines and flowers as embellishment.
Everything was colorful, vivid, and full of light.
Lily and Palmer both followed her gaze around the room in stunned silence, then stared at her together.
"You can see now?"
Lucita didn't know how to explain why her vision could suddenly recover and could only smile awkwardly: "Yes... yes."
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